The Mockinjay's Sleep
by Juliet Mellark
Summary: Rue has to make a run for it. The toad-faced boy knows how to strangle her in twenty different ways and she must survive the Bloodbath. And as always, trees will be the little mockingjay's best allies. Rue's POV. T for being the Hunger Games.


**Hi! This is a short drabble on Rue's thoughts during the bloodbath and running out to the woods, before she partners up with Katniss. It is written in Rue's POV, hope you like it!**

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Sixty seconds. It's all I have to run away from the massacre bound in the Cornucopia for the next hour or so. I have to run out of here and get lost in the woods until night falls. That is, if a career doesn't catch me first. I'm fast and agile, but I know the moment one of those nasty careers gets hold of me I will be dead. But I can't afford worrying about that. I just have to be quick and agile, and climb up to a tree. It will be easy to outsmart this year's tributes, really. They look as intelligent as a loaf of toast. In fact, I believe I have heard loaves of toast saying more intelligent things than them. Thresh always told me they're just retarded show-offs, but I'm too nice to think anyone is retarded, so I guess I will just stick to the 'show-off' adjective.

I turn my neck slowly, breathing in and out loudly. Great. The person standing next to me is none other than the toad-faced District 1 career, Marvel. I once heard him bragging about knowing twenty different ways to strangle someone. I imagine him holding me by my little neck and twisting it recklessly, as I try to gasp for breath. I shiver, and then shake my head. I just have to run away from them. I can't take any chances with getting equipment from the Cornucopia. It would be far too dangerous and risky.

My eyes glance towards a backpack, just a few feet away from where I am standing. It is a neon orange color, and I assume it is full with useful things. I could easily grab it and get out of the Cornucopia in no time...focus, Rue. You cannot just run into the bloodbath, you have to go! That toad-faced career might very well kill you if you even dare to approach the backpack. After all, he's just as close to the bag as her, and he is a trained strangler. No, Rue, better not take any chances.

The loud beep fills my ears, and for a split of second I stand there without knowing what to do.

Then, I run to the orange backpack, grab it by the handle and run out of the Cornucopia as fast as I can.

I don't know how long have I been running for, the only thing I feel is my numb feet and sweat pouring over my face. I am panting, and now I know I must stop. I look around and check the trees around me. There's a huge pine which seems comfortable enough for me to take a seat and watch the games from there. Yes, it is my best option.

I climb up the tree skillfully, like my father taught me back when I was just a little thing, even smaller than now. I sit on top of one of the highest branches, holding my backpack tightly. It might be my only hope when it comes to surviving, and I am ready to stay here and not to move a muscle until I know it's safe to. I look at everything inside and I suddenly feel a lump in my thoat. There's iodine, an extra pair of socks, a water skin, some kind of strange sunglasses, and a pack of dried bacon and crackers. I will not be able to survive without food, and I can sense no water current close to my emplacement. Should I continue wandering around the woods and look for a water source? I don't think so. I'll stay here, and only go back to the floor when I really need it. I just drank and ate all I could a couple of hours ago, so my stomach is completely full and I am in no need of water or food. I decide to place everything inside the backpack again, except for the sunglasses. I examine them carefully, looking at its lenses and studying them for any possible hidden mechanism. They look just like average thick goggle paste sunglasses, so I finally put them on and try to look at the sun shining right above me. It still hurts, and the sunglasses are too big for my tiny face, so I just place them back inside the bag and study the land around me carefully.

Then, when I'm about to lean down and close my eyes for a while, I feel something in the very bottom of the backpack. I try to grab it, and I feel delighted to find a little slingshot inside. It's one of the Capitol's high-tech artifacts, and now all I have to do is find cobblestones or other type of things to throw with it, and I will be able to defend myself from other tributes. I smile, because I've always been good with slingshots. If I try really hard, I might even be able to blind that nasty Marvel in one eye. He has always been looking at me menacingly, ever since the trainings. I think he wants to kill me. I shudder, but then I leave the slingshot inside the backpack and lean back onto the tree's strong trunk. I will have to go search some stones or other throwable things later.

I spend a couple of hours sitting here and doing nothing, other than counting the cannon shooting after the bloodbath is over. Twelve. Half of the tributes died in the Cornucopia, and I'm one of those lucky twelve who are still alive.

My mind suddenly moves to the girl on fire. Is she safe? I hope so. I want to find her, she seems like a really trustable person. But this arena is enormous and it will take me days to jump into her. And if I do, what tells me she won't just kill me off and try to reunite with her District mate, the lover boy? I hope she doesn't. I just seem to trust her more than anyone else, even more than Thresh. And Thresh is certainly one great person. He had been like my older brother ever since we were reaped, but yesterday night he told me we couldn't see each other any more once we were thrown into the arena, and I understood him. How would he kill a little twelve-year-old if it came to just us two?

I stiffen when I hear a girl running by. It's the District Five girl, the one with the messy red hair and those bulging, always menacing eyes. I try not to make any noise whatsoever, and I let out a sigh when I can't hear her quick footsteps any more. I see some other tributes running around every now and then. But I seem to freeze when I see a group approaching my tree: there's five of them, and they're the most menacing tributes in the whole arena. They're yelling loudly, inviting tributes to come and defy them. Obviously, none of us will. We're way too scared of them.

I recognize the two District 2 careers immediatly: Cato and Clove, I believe. The boy, athletic and certainly not much of brains, as Thresh hinted back in the trainings, leads the group into the woods, followed by young Clove. It surprises me to see she isn't much older than me, perhaps a couple of years older only. What is she doing in the Hunger Games? I know she had volunteered, but why so young? I certainly wouldn't volunteer. I wouldn't be here if someone had volunteered for me. But no one had, so I just got stuck into this arena of which I'm not likely to come out alive.

Cato and Clove are being closely followed by the District 1 careers: Glimmer, the sassy dimwit – Thresh's nickname for the bossy and rather mean District One female career – and Marvel, my toad-faced enemy. I hate the greedy look on his brown eyes, pretending to be the greatest and most awesome person around. He is carrying a ton of weapons in his hands. Actually, all of the careers do. Their look is menacing, scary. I guess that's what they want to look like after all.

However, there's a fifth member of the group walking behind them. At first I think it's just one of the two District 4 careers, but to my surprise he isn't. He's none other than the lover boy – _Katniss's_ lover boy. At first, I feel shocked, because I always assumed the two of them would stick together. Then I realize breaking apart was the most intelligent thing to do. After all, who would kill the person they loved? It would be best for them to die having been torn apart previously. Less suffering, and potentially less painful if it was down to both of them as the last tributes in the arena. Yeah, definitely breaking apart was a good option.

Peeta...Mellark, wasn't it? Something like that. He's a curious boy. I know he is sixteen, and rather charming by his looks. He doesn't seem to be rich like the career's he has allied with, nor does he look as starving as children from my District. I assume he must live in the wealthier side of Twelve. Perhaps he's even the son of a Peacekeeper, or someone working for the mayor. He looked confuse, rather amazed about everything that had happened over the last hours. Who wouldn't? Knowing he had allied the careers, he had been likely to watch all of the twelve tributes' painful and slow deaths. I shudder, and for the first time I close my eyes and hope Katniss and Thresh aren't dead.

Soon after the careers leave my emplacement, the sun starts setting. Wow, I have not even realized I have been sitting in this tree for hours. I know it would be dangerous to fall asleep in the branch I'm sitting on, so I easily climb onto the highest branch and cuddle into the tree trunk. I know I will not fall, I have a light sleep and I don't move a muscle during nighttime. I place my backpack as a pillow, and I close my eyes, but soon I start feeling a numb chill in my hands. I realize it's the only part of my body that isn't covered by my suit, and the night is getting pretty cold. I resolve to take the pair of socks and place them in my hands. Then, I cuddle into my sleeping shape once again and I try to get some sleep.

Who knows, it could be the last nap of my life.

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**Hope you liked it! I know Rue was slightly OOC sometimes, but oh well...I didn't know how to portray her in any different way :) Hope you liked this, please R&R!**

**Juliet :)**


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